ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: Political roots of Sismondian economics:between rights and "capabilities"
Author: Dal Degan Francesca
Analysing the text of Richesse Commerciale, the economic work of the young Sismondi, the paper focuses on the political "roots" of his thought. The aim of this research is twofold: establishing the influences of authors such as Delolme, Wooddeson, Blackstone he read in his youth (including an analysis of commentaries made by Sismondi and kept in the Pescia Archive) and who added a "political" dimension to his economic discourse; attempting to point out the specific conception of justice which, from his point of view, his behind economic justice. Rights and "capabilities" are the two key concepts that help to articulate this second step of my reflection. As a matter of fact, in Sismondi's view, economic, better commercial society in 1803, is characterised by a particular dynamic structure of justice consisting of a spread of rights and particular "capabilities". Rights give an adequate "place in the world" to subjects, citoyens in Sismondian words, and capabilities help organise the social world. In any specific society, both elements are primarily involved in economic functioning. Without decentraisation of property rights and of access to surplus, without their dynamic re-distribution and a specific relational "energy" which sustains processes of recognition and valorisation, such as those which were active or could be activated in Genevan society, it is impossible to establish a good economy. At the same time, scientific analysis that doesn't take into account the invisible politica structure of a society, cannot pretend to completness. In particular, two sections of Richesse Commerciale concur to reach this conclusion: the one devoted to colonies and slavery and the other aimed to state thelaws of taxations and monopoles.
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